Many moons ago – when I was in short trousers – I used to do a bit of sprinting and from what I remember most of the raining revolved around strength and techniques training – you need to be a powerful highly co-ordinated person to sprint

Last year I did a series of sessions on Candence work (lead by a girl who use to play netball for NZ, apparently they do it all the time as part of their training) and it helped my sprinting no end. Basically it breaks your running style back down to the basics and then gradually builds it back up again. I found an article which hopefully explains it better than I do at the following address:

http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/0046.htm

However, RW if you are reading it would be a great article for you to do as I suspect that many runners out there have never heard of it or the benefits of it!

Last year I did a series of sessions on Candence work (lead by a girl who use to play netball for NZ, apparently they do it all the time as part of their training) and it helped my sprinting no end. Basically it breaks your running style back down to the basics and then gradually builds it back up again. I found an article which hopefully explains it better than I do at the following address:

http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/0046.htm

However, RW if you are reading it would be a great article for you to do as I suspect that many runners out there have never heard of it or the benefits of it!

Is it out-and-out sprinting you're looking to do? - the reference to "150 bpm" made me wonder if you were actually looking for a shorter, faster distance to run that'll take you close to your max HR.

If so, why not try 800m? I'm certainly no natural sprinter, but a few years ago I trained to an 800m schedule for about 2-3 weeks in order to have a go at this distance. Surprisingly, according to one of those "comparability tables", the time I got from my one attempt still outranks my best ever 5 mile effort (and comes close to my 10K PB).

It'll certainly make you a faster runner. You've got the endurance base from your current training, and that'll help you to put in the number of 200m, 300m, 400m reps you'll need to acquire the necessary speed. Although upper body strength would be an asset, you don't need to be built like Linford to be able to run this sort of distance.

I'm sure you wouldn't be made to feel like a lemon if you did turn up at an athletics club - but if you are worried, can you not find a track you can use, just to get an indication of how fast you are over 100 or 200? A quick trawl round the results pages of some of the local athletics clubs' web sites should then give you some indication of how competitive your times are.

I looked up my local track - Palmer Park, in Reading - last night. Unfortunately, last year part of the infield collapsed as there is a river running under it, and it's been closed! Because of that, the AC hasn't been meeting this year.

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